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Feb 2012
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Do we have an economic or a spiritual problem?

Monday Aug 02 2010

By Jim Selman | Bio
Do we have an economic problem or a spiritual problem?

My teacher and friend Dr. Fernando Flores was a candidate for the Presidency of Chile. In one of his speeches, he declared, “We don’t have an economic problem so much as we have a spiritual one…we’ve forgotten who we are…we lack a vision and purpose for our nation”. He dropped out of the presidential race, but this phrase has stayed with me. I think it is true of most nations, including our own.

There is a maxim that states, “A vision without action is just a dream. Action without a vision is a nightmare.” A vision provides a context, a ground of being for our lives. A vision is not a goal: it is the organizing principle for whatever goals we may have. A vision is a place to stand—the future as possibility—a place to ‘come from’ in all that we undertake.[Read More]

Written by eldering at Fearless Aging

Tagged with: action choice eckhart_tolle economic_problem fernando_flores new_earth obama spiritual_problem vision

The Four Horsemen

Friday Jul 02 2010

By Jim Selman | Bio
I was playing a trivia game and had to answer what the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are. I got three out of four, but had to go to go to Wikipedia to get them all: War, Famine, Conquest and Death. These traditional Biblical symbols mark the ‘end of time’, when all things are put right and presumably all karma is erased and this journey will be complete. In researching each of them, I learned that ‘conquest’ is best translated in today’s language as ‘corruption’. The ancient notion of ‘famine’ can also be understood to encompass epidemics and plagues. ‘War’ represents violence in all forms and Death is pretty self-evident. These seem to me to be a good list of the dark side of “The Force” which threatens our way of life and our collective future.[Read More]

Written by eldering at The Great Turning

Tagged with: apocalypse boredom choice conquest cynicism death famine four_horsemen_of_the_apocalypse future isolation john_wayne loneliness resignation war

Wisdom 101: A matter of time

Tuesday Apr 20 2010

By Jim Selman | Bio
The older I am, the more I reflect on the aphorisms all around us and wonder why it is so difficult to accept and live with this obvious wisdom. Robert Fulghum memorialized many of them in his bestseller All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. All of these little ‘nuggets’ of wisdom we’ve accumulated over the years are generally, well, wise. It is befuddling why so few people take them to heart. Why do so many spend a lifetime learning these kinds of lessons the hard way?[Read More]

Written by eldering at Wisdom in Action

Tagged with: aphorisms choice elders experience learning life_lessons pavlov's_dog robert_fulghum wisdom

12-Step Program for America: Step 1

Monday Mar 01 2010

By Jim Selman | Bio
I work with organizations that are attempting to change. At the beginning of working with a new client, I point out what’s missing for any organization that has recurring or seemingly intractable problems: what’s missing is a different way of observing. Whether we’re talking about a company, a community or a continent, a new perspective always gives us an opening to create new possibilities, have new choices and take new actions: a new way of observing the world effectively gives us a different future than some variation of ‘more of the same’. We need to stop asking what the problems are and start asking why they persist. When we do, we begin to realize that we have a paradigm problem. Until we deal with that, none of our seemingly intractable problems—from staggering debt to unending war, climate change to the underlying causes of the mortgage crises—can be solved. Albert Einstein expressed this concisely when he said that sometimes our problems cannot be solved by thinking the way we thought when we created them.[Read More]

Written by eldering at Wisdom in Action

Tagged with: 12-step addiction america cause choice common conservatives constitution constitutional control declaration democracy freedom independence liberals of paradigm problem program step vision

Breakups and Broken Hearts

Tuesday Feb 16 2010

   By Jim Selman | Bio
There are two kinds of break-ups. The ‘soft’ breakup is where both parties in a relationship more or less stay in communication and talk about their differences, their discontent or their changing needs until they arrive at a conclusion that “This just isn’t working” and agree to go their separate ways. Sometimes they remain friends. In any case, this kind of mature and honest ending allows both parties to let go of past expectations or disappointments, eventually reach some degree of  ‘completion’ with the romance and move on with their lives. The ‘hard’ breakup is when[Read More]

Written by eldering at Fearless Aging

Tagged with: blame breakup broken_heart choice forgiveness gratitude love relationship

Destiny

Tuesday Dec 08 2009

By Shae Hadden 

Choose to wait, wish and hope. At the end of your life, when you reflect on the chance encounters, strange coincidences, unlikely timing, and uncanny events you experienced, you may say that all of your 'bad luck' was your 'destiny'.

Choose to be, do and have. At the end of your life, when you reflect on all the chance encounters, strange coincidences, unlikely timing, and uncanny events you experienced, you may say that all of your 'good fortune' was your 'destiny'.

Do you see the difference?

(Condensed from a TUTS Adventurers Club Thought for the Day)

 

[Read More]

Written by eldering at Wisdom in Action

Tagged with: choice destiny luck

Boundaries: Choosing Change

Monday Nov 30 2009

   By Jim Selman | Bio
We’ve all experienced a situation—whether in a marriage, friendship or business relationship—where we find ourselves thinking about the other person and saying, “I love you, BUT…”. It’s in that moment we realize a particular behavior of theirs is not acceptable to us and has become a source of stress and resentment. For many, resentment almost always leads to a downward spiral of self-destructive behavior and the eventual destruction of the relationship. I was coaching a friend recently who is in such a dilemma.[Read More]

Written by eldering at Personal Empowerment

Tagged with: addiction boundaries change choice commitment habit possibility relationship risk

Low Energy and Burnout - Part 2

Monday Nov 23 2009

By Jim Selman | Bio
When we know that there is an end to a particularly strenuous period of work, we can feel energized and become even more productive. When we think that the flow of work is endless or that we have no choice in the matter, then we may begin to break down, feel disempowered, become tired. Life begins to feel like a burden. I have found that resolving these kinds of chronic negative moods about workload and feeling overwhelmed begins by[Read More]

Written by eldering at Health

Tagged with: burnout choice low_energy mood presence stress

Changing the World

Monday Nov 16 2009

   By Jim Selman | Bio
In a recent New York Times op-ed column, Bob Herbert challenged all of us to get down out of the bleachers and take on at least one of today’s intractable problems. He pointed to the courage of many Civil Rights activists in the '60s and '70s, including Andrew Goodman who was murdered by the KKK and of course Rosa Parks. We remember these individuals and many like them because, like revolutionaries everywhere, they put their lives on the line for something worth dying for. They stood[Read More]

Written by eldering at Fearless Aging
Join discussion COMMENTS [1]

Tagged with: activism activist andrew_goodman castro chiapas choice civil_rights future rosa_parks tiananmen_square

The Future Habit

Monday Nov 09 2009

   By Jim Selman | Bio
It is almost impossible to turn on the television or read a newspaper or a magazine without encountering one pundit, expert or “man on the street” either talking about the future or trying to blame someone for something. Our media commentary is rarely about what is happening now: mostly it’s about what happened in the past or what someone thinks is going to happen in the future. Combine the establishment media with all of the blogging and chatting going on, and it is incredible how fixated we are on what will happen next.[Read More]

Written by eldering at Wisdom in Action

Tagged with: choice commitment control force future habit past possibility prediction relationship transformation

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